"Don't Get Any Closer"

Temporary Residence

Artists:

A silence settled on Matthew Cooper’s work as Eluvium following a glut of releases in 2010. Perhaps the mixed reception to his unexpected vocal work on 2010's Similes caused him to take stock, or maybe he just needed to get some other music out of his system; Cooper worked on the soundtrack to Some Days Are Better Than Others in 2011, and released a couple of electronic records under the name Martin Eden in 2012. "Don’t Get Any Closer" is the first single from Nightmare Ending, a double album that was originally dreamed up as the next release after the high benchmark Eluvium record, 2007's Copia.

There’s a sense of care here that explains the protracted gestation period for the album, with Cooper stretching a simple piano motif over a drone-heavy backdrop. It’s pretty and sad, rising to something approaching a crescendo just after the midway point, then quietly shuffling back to its signature formation at the close. Cooper’s piano work hasn’t advanced much since Copia-- if anything, it’s even more basic here-- but the unlearning process works to his advantage, recalling the kind of plaintive patterns slowcore figureheads Codeine were working on for the inspired "W" from their Barely Real EP.